Ntando Mlilo is driven by her conviction that reading matters. And, perhaps even more so, that young people matter.
Ntando Mlilo is driven by her conviction that reading matters. And, perhaps even more so, that young people matter.
She herself is only in her mid-twenties and a rookie English teacher at Mary Waters High School, but her enthusiasm for the newly-opened library at the school is palpable.
It might have something to do with having Shakespeare read to her regularly when she was growing up in Zimbabwe, or her own life-changing reading of Leon Uris’s Exodus at the impressionable age of 15.
It may be the literacy-focussed teaching and research that she experienced during her PGCE course in the Rhodes Education Department. Or perhaps all of these conspired to make Ntando determined to provide a library facility at her new school and to make reading cool. Undeterred by the fact that she had no experience of running a library, she simply googled “how to start a library”, downloaded a free, 500-page manual from Unesco and rolled up her sleeves.
The library was started with a single shelf of 10 reference books, in a classroom that she swopped with another teacher because it was better suited to her purpose. By the time of the opening last Tuesday, there were thousands of books on the shelves, each one hand catalogued by Mlilo and her dyed-in-the-wool team of learner-librarians.
A mix of fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, reference, magazines and career guidance pamphlets, the books were either donated by Gadra Education, Rotary, St Andrew’s, DSG and Kingswood College or actively solicited by Mlilo herself from sources around the country.
Ironically, Mlilo was nearly lost to the teaching profession. Her first foray into student teaching ended disastrously because she was so nervous and lacked confidence. Fortunately, she was encouraged to persevere and her love of young people and teaching won out, assisted by the year that she spent volunteering through His People church and learning about youth leadership.
The library was opened last week in the presence of Department of Education officials, teachers, pupils and representatives of the organisations that donated books. Also present was the Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University, Dr Saleem Badat, who said in his speech that he went to a school “very similar to this where I was encouraged to read by an English teacher. In those days, what people read for relaxation was James Hadley Chase. My teacher couldn’t care what we read as long as we were reading. But, you’ll be surprised, 10 to 15 years later, what impact those light novels can have on you.
"I hope that in years to come there will be some writers, poets, dramatists who will say, ‘My love for literature started here in this modest library. This is where the books gripped me’," Badat said. “I think we should concentrate on the shelves that are filled. All important things start with very humble beginnings. We should focus on what might be in a year’s time, in five year’s time."
While congratulating Mlilo on her achievement, he went on to say, “We talk about Grahamstown as an education town. But, it’s not yet an education town. Only when all children in schools like this are provided with opportunities, then one day into the future we can celebrate and call ourselves an education town."
In her eloquent address at the opening, learner-librarian Nosipho Lukhele said, “It wasn’t easy for us to make this dream a reality – but here it is.” Mlilo is particularly proud that her learner-librarians have taken the library on as something to advocate among their peers. “The kids said to me (at the launch), ‘This is so important and it’s also so cool’.” She tries hard to find books that interest the pupils and will encourage them to read for fun, while also aiming to provide them with access to reference books that will assist them with school projects.
Mlilo is adamant about one thing: “I do not want this to be a white elephant.” Her dream is that pupils, parents and teachers will get so involved that they will not want to see the library disappear. “These are the people that perpetuate traditions.”
